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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126914">Pity the Stars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Procrastinationismysuperpower/pseuds/Procrastinationismysuperpower'>Procrastinationismysuperpower</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Beaches, Best Friends, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, One-Sided Attraction, POV First Person, Pining, Read it as gay, Stargazing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:47:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,612</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28126914</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Procrastinationismysuperpower/pseuds/Procrastinationismysuperpower</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Pity the stars, for they do not have her... Pity me, for neither do I</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pity the Stars</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>(First short story. Constructive criticism encouraged. Seriously need a beta on this. Help me out here people please. Should I give this to the person I wrote it about?)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her eyes sparkled in the low firelight, amusement glinting in those deep pools of warm chocolate. Mouth drawn tight with twitching lips, she asks me, “Well then why are we here, if not to enjoy good company and beautiful scenery? Did you drag me out here just to listen to the waves crash and the fire pop?” I look her up and down, raising an eyebrow in mock indignation, “You truly think so simply of me?” I tease with a smirk. She huffs a laugh, playing with the edge of the blanket protecting her from the sand below.</p>
<p><br/>I fidget with my hands, waiting until she looks back up at me. Our eyes meet over the flames and she looks radiant in the fire light. Her face becomes expectant, dark eyebrows raised over beautiful expressive eyes framed by thick lashes. Gold sparkles shine off her eyelids playing with the fire while her lips edge out into a gracious smile. A strand of hair falls into her face when she ducks her head to reply, “No I know you have a plan rattling around in there somewhere. I just wasn’t sure how far it went.”</p>
<p><br/>“So you do doubt me? You know that when it is my turn to plan an outing, I pour my soul into it.” I shake my head, faking hurt and hiding my treacherous smile trying to come out. “Now since you clearly have not learned my ways in the months we have spent together, we may as well just skip to the big finale.” I stand up from my perch on the driftwood log and walk over to the trunk of the car, a few paces away from where she sat upon the worn red and black plaid blanket. Picking at a fraying edge she calls out to me, “A finale? Wow I thought that a dinner picnic and a campfire at our spot was perfect already but if you have more, please do delight me.”</p>
<p>“Admittedly it is not much more,” I say as I fumble for the extra blankets and pillows I had packed, “but I think you will enjoy it nonetheless”</p>
<p>The sun had set some time ago leaving a stunning imprint of color in the clear sky before fading to black, even so I glance at the sky to ensure my plan would not be foiled by a rogue cloud. Seeing none, I hurry back to where she is seated; long pale legs stretched out in front of her, head tilted back to find me, supporting herself on her arms. Seeing the bundle in my arms she rises to help me, taking a blanket and a pillow back to her place by the fire.</p>
<p>“Whatever this will turn into, I am sure that I will love it,” she says, sinking back down to the sand. We arrange the extra bedding into a nest, surrounded by comfort on all sides. I gesture for her to make herself comfortable and she slips into the mound of plush. Holding up one finger I tell her to wait while I finish up. I gather some sand and smother the fire. The sudden darkness shocks my senses and it takes me a moment to recollect them. She calls out to me, voice like a lighthouse beacon in a stormy night, “So what now? I hope it involves you over here with me at some point.”</p>
<p>“One more thing,” I reply, heading back to the car once more. I had stashed the notebook in the glove box hoping she would not snoop and find my surprise. Upon finding my prize undisturbed, I feel my way back to her. Taking the notebook in my teeth, I slip off my shoes and set them beside hers. She looks back at me, her hopeful grin illuminating my way to her. Slipping under the blankets I feel her trapped heat already warming me up from the chill coming off the dark ocean. I turn towards her to explain but find her lips a breath away from mine and her eyes surveying mine. Tension builds as we remain immobile. One second... Two... Three… I inhale and something snaps.</p>
<p>She turns back to the waves, the picture of content, while I scramble to catch myself from chasing after her lips. Letting out a sigh and my racing thoughts with it, I reach up for her shoulder. Pushing her gently to lay down, I explain in a whisper, “You always said you wanted to sleep under the stars.” I hover over her for a moment, watching her gaze at the heavens, imagining what could be before her sharp inhale snaps me out of my reverie. She takes a moment to compose her words, “I didn’t know you remembered that… I have never know anyone that was as good a friend to me as you have been. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for anything.”</p>
<p>“Whoa there, its just some pretty lights and blankets,” I joke, retreating to lay next to her. She huffs a breath of laughter in acknowledgement, letting the conversation drop away. The silence is deafening to me but when I steal a glance at her face, awash in moonlight, grinning up at the stars, I push aside the feeling that have me itching to reach for her hand. We lay there in the quiet for a while before I remember the final step in the plan. Groping around for the notebook, I break the silence with a soft whisper, “Hey… I have one more surprise for you.” She rolls onto her side, putting a hand up to cushion her face and with a smirk teases, “Yeah? I thought you were all ‘surprised’ out after granting one of my deepest wishes.”</p>
<p>“Not quite yet.” I pull the notebook out from behind my back and hand it to her. “It’s a new journal for you. I saw you were running out of space in your current one and I figured you would forget to get a new one before you ran out of space.” Supporting myself on one elbow I bring the other hand up to rib the back of my neck sheepishly. She admires the deep navy cover, inlaid with gold swirls mimicking ocean tides. “I also wrote a little something on the inside cover for you.” That makes her look up at me with wide eyes, her mouth dropping into an ‘o’. Hurriedly I back track, “If you don’t like it, it can just be covered with paint and then you can customize the inside cover also so its a win either way.”</p>
<p>Not risking a peek at her expression I drop back down onto the pillows and focus on the stars. After a moment I hear her sit up and open the book and start murmuring the inscription to herself, moonlight illuminating the words just enough for her. A minute or two later, I risk a look at her and see tears sliding down her cheeks. A rush of fear runs up my spine. Was it too personal? Too philosophical? Suddenly she throws herself on top of me, wrapping her arms around my neck. She holds me tight and I bring my hands up to latch onto her back. She shifts, tucking her face against my neck and whispers in my ear, sending shivers through me, “Thank you… just… thank you…”</p>
<p>We stay like that, clutching each other as if contact could share our emotions across our skin. Eventually, I can’t take it anymore and flip us over so that I can untangle myself from her and from the disaster in my head. As I pull away, she grabs my arm and draws me back to her. She ends up laying smashed up against me, both of us on our backs with arms and legs tangled together. The notebook has been lost within the mess of blankets but I can’t summon the willpower to pull away and find it. Soon enough, her eyes start to droop and she falls asleep cuddled against me, bundled under a pile of blankets, with the watchful gaze of the moon and stars protecting us. I indulge myself for a moment and let my fantasies run wild. The rush of my brain is taken over by exhaustion and I drift off in her embrace, savoring the feeling of her in my arms.</p>
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<p>
  <em>No one pities the stars, lonely and cold as they are stranded in the abyss of our expanding universe. Everything racing father and faster away from their neighbors, faster and farther through their lives until the inevitable heat death of the universe.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Thoughts like these make me glad that my worldly experience will be but a infinitesimal blip in the lifetime of a star. Short as it may be, my life is infinitely more beautiful. Stars spend the entirety of their life stranded in an ocean of isolation, expanding each second with no hope of connection. I, in the exact opposite of a star, will always be intricately connected, tethered to others, such is the wonderfully painful human existence. Our tethers are light, peace, war, and darkness all at once, they show us the stunning grace of living in connection.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>We may envy the longevity of the stars, raise them on a pedestal for their unyielding fire, but in truth they should envy us. Surviving in a vacuum is limitlessly, overwhelmingly lonely whereas we experience living in an explosion of senses and emotions. Yet neither cold, undying beauty nor fantastic, colorful experiences would mean anything without a tether to hold onto…</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Thank you tether, for exploding my life into the astounding rainbow that the stars can envy</em>
</p>
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